Aim: To determine the relation of echocardiographic subepicardial adipose tissue (SAT) thickness with anthropometric and clinical parameters in pubertal obese children.
Subjects and methods: A total of 52 obese pubertal subjects (13.1±1.56 yr, 27 male patients) and 39 age- and gender-matched lean pubertal subjects (13.0±1.28 yr, 16 male patients) were included in the study. Serum glucose, lipid profile, and insulin levels were measured during the fasting state. Each subject underwent a transthoracic echocardiography and the SAT thickness was measured during end-diastole from the parasternal long-axis views.
Results: The obese pubertal subjects had significantly higher SAT, triceps skin fold (TSF) thickness (mm), waist (WC) and mid-arm circumference (MAC) values (cm) compared with lean pubertal subjects group (p<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that SAT thickness was significantly related with age, SD score-body mass index (SDS-BMI), BMI, WC, MAC, TSF, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (p<0.05), whereas there was no significant relation of SAT with hip circumference and waist to hip ratio (p>0.05). As an optimal cut-off point, a SAT thickness of 5.25 mm determined IR with 92% sensitivity and 62.1% specificity.
Conclusions: Our study showed that SAT thickness in obese pubertal children shows a good correlation with age, SDS-BMI, BMI, WC, MAC, TSF, and HOMA-IR. In addition, our results suggest that SAT thickness might be used as a supportive data for risk stratification of metabolic syndrome in obese children.